1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a volatilization suppressing agent, and, more particularly, to a volatilization suppressing agent having a characteristic of aggregating or gelling above a certain temperature and useful for controlling the rate of volatilization of volatile compositions and the like, and to the use of such a volatilization suppressing agent.
2. Description of the Background Art
Volatile compositions, such as air fresheners, volatile moth proofers and repellents, volatile fungicidal agents, and the like, are conventionally known in the art. Such a volatile compositions may be a composition in which a volatile effective component is dissolved or solubilized in an aqueous solvent such as water, or a composition in which an effective component is carried by a volatile solvent.
In recent years, various methods have been proposed for volatilizing these volatile effective components or effective components carried by a volatile solvent at a constant rate (such volatile effective components or effective components carried by a volatile solvent are hereinafter collectively referred to as "volatile components").
The rate of volatilization of volatile components from these compositions, however, depends on that of the volatile effective components themselves or of the volatile solvent acting as a carrier. For this reason, there has been a problem, for example, that the rate of volatilization unduly increases under high temperature conditions, exhausting the effective components within a very short period of time and volatilizing them in an amount far exceeding the amount required for a specified space.
Conventionally, countermeasures for the problem relating to the fluctuations in the rate of volatilization due to temperature changes have consisted of changing the area from which the volatile components volatilize, or controlling the amount of air flow by manual, mechanical, or electrical means.
However, changing the volatilization area or manually controlling the amount of air flow according to the temperature change is extremely troublesome. In addition, since each person has an individual feeling toward temperature, it has been difficult to achieve the objects by these means.
Although the method of mechanically or electrically controlling the amount of air flow is free from such problems, this method has a drawback in that the devices for achieving the object are complicated and considerably expensive.
Development of a simple and inexpensive means for controlling the rate of volatilization has, therefore, been desired.
The present inventors have undertaken extensive studies concerning the method of suppressing the rate of volatilization of volatile components from volatile compositions at high temperatures, and found that the above objects can be achieved by suitably designing formulations of the volatile compositions, specifically by adding a compound which is hydrophilic at low temperatures, but aggregates or gels at high temperatures by losing its hydrophilic properties.